Most European couples would on average like at least two children but end up having only one because of worries about financial costs, a European Union study showed Friday, reported Deutsche Presse Agentur (dpa). The study, funded by the EU Commission and based on data from 30,000 people in 14 European countries, said that more than half of all those questioned - male or female - wanted to have two or more children. But it said many stopped after one child because they did not want to see a decline in their standard of living. Couples desiring more than two children lived in Cyprus and Poland as well as Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Hungary and the Netherlands. But the report said people in Germany, Italy, Austria and Belgium and the Czech Republic were happy with just one child. In fact, in Germany and the Netherlands, a large number of people did not want children at all. The study said that the declining importance attached to marriage and the rise in divorce rates did not necessarily translate into fewer births. It said births had remained steady over the last ten years in the range of 1.2-1.4 children, with the ratio of children born to unmarried mothers rising to 30-40 per cent. However having children within marriage remained the preferred choice, especially in southern and eastern European countries, with approval rates of 80 per cent in Italy, Lithuania and Poland. On the other hand, living together without having children is also becoming more acceptable, especially in the Czech Republic, Germany and the Netherlands. --SP 23 11 Local Time 20 11 GMT
